


All is Peachy

by yaodai



Series: Timetravel, Cake and Sasuke the Cat [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, Sasuke the Cat is not furry canon Sasuke, both Jiraiya and Orochimaru shouldn't be allowed to name anything, he's just assholish enough to deserve the name, solving problems with actual words, tiny kittens!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22031890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaodai/pseuds/yaodai
Summary: Sasuke the Cat decided that Orochimaru and Jiraiya could use some more responsibility.Then Jiraiya screw things up a wee bit.
Relationships: Jiraiya/Orochimaru (Naruto)
Series: Timetravel, Cake and Sasuke the Cat [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1585813
Comments: 20
Kudos: 229





	All is Peachy

"It looks like a nugget."

"Orochimaru, no!"

"What? It does!"

They were both hovering over a basket filled with towels and an old wool sweater, where two small things were squirming around, making miserable, high-pitched noises.  
The nest was rather improvised, but one could do only as much at short notice. And it was a very short one.

Sasuke the Cat decided to just dump two newborn kittens on the windowsill of Jiraiya's place and then demanded food, like it was a completely normal day.  
After a short moment of bewilderment, the two jonin managed to put their wits together to organize something warmer for the kittens than the cold stone surface. 

Orochimaru poked one of the kittens with his long, pale finger again.

"See? A nugget."

"No," Jiraiya smacked his hand away. "That's Sasuke's kid, not a nugget!"

"For all we know he found it in the trash can."

"So what?" Jiraiya shrugged. "His kid now. He trusts us! He brought them here because he trusts us!"

"...are you tearing up?"

"No."

"You are," Orochimaru chuckled. "You definitely are!"

Jiraiya furiously wiped his face with his sleeve. 

"Well, trust or no, we are facing a certain problem here," Orochimaru hummed. "They are too young to eat on their own and Sasuke is definitely a male."

Jiraiya looked down at the squirming little cats. Not exactly fluffy yet. Alright, a little bit nugget-shaped, but he's not going to say that out loud with a snake summoner in the same room. 

"We have to feed them somehow..." Jiraiya furrowed his brow in concentration. "A teaspoon is going to be too big, right?"

"Oh for heaven's sake, Jiraiya!" Orochimaru groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose like he experienced a sudden attack of migraine. "You just... I'm going to the lab pick some things up and you are going to sit here and not use any spoons."

xxx

An hour later they had syringes, straight from Orochimaru's lab.  
Also a cat replacement milk - one of the Uchiha Summoners generously offered this and his help in exchange for using his Sharingan. On them feeding the cats.

Uchiha were weirdoes, Jiraiya decided. Either digging up their eyeballs and swapping them around or activating the dojutsu for the weirdest reasons.

"They need names," Jiraiya said, looking down at the now full, slightly rounder kittens.

"They're cats."

"Sasuke has a name!" Jiraiya protested. "And he knows when I'm talking about him!"

"The only thing Sasuke knows is where the food is stored," Orochimaru rolled his eyes.

"Oh, don't be like that!" Jiraiya huffed. "I'm going to name this one Peachy."

"...why?"

"Well, my first thought was to name it after Momo," he scratched his chin. "But that doesn't really fit... on the other hand it's kinda creamy, in the warm sorts of way, so like a peach?"

"...didn't you name that heroine after tits?" Orochimaru squinted. "I distinctly remember that really long description of her chest."

"Hey, it's literature! Hero's name needs easy to interpret meaning!"

"If you can name a cat after breasts, then the second one is Nugget."

"...are you hungry?"

"It really looks like one."

xxx

Since Sasuke's kittens were at Jiraiya's flat and needed the care around the clock, it made sense for Orochimaru to temporarily move in.  
Since Jiraiya had only one bed it also made sense to share it - it wasn't like they were in there at the same time anyway.

Two hours long naps were a terrible, horrible idea they should be used to by now - the shinobi lifestyle was a very demanding one - but somehow weren't.  
Jiraiya felt like he was walking through heavy mist or maybe a thick wall of snow that somehow wasn't cold, but Peachy and Nugget were getting bigger and louder with every passing day.  
So. Progress. 

It was surprisingly satisfying, for something that tiring; to see the squealing nuggets grows bigger and more cat-shaped, to hear them scream louder with every passing day.  
Kind of like seeing his books growing page by page, only sort of warmer on the inside, or like figuring out a particularly difficult seal one symbol at a time.   
Not that he had time for the books or the seals. 

Speaking about the time, it looked like it was the end of Jiraiya’s turn and he probably should go and wake up Orochimaru.   
He never took well to letting him sleep in out there in the field and it was exactly the same when they were taking care of baby cats, as if there was something horribly offensive in being nice. 

He stretched, wincing at how loud his joints were cracking and knocked on the bedroom doors - a painful lesson Tsunade taught him - before he dared to crack them open.

Orochimaru was sitting on the bed, eyes barely open and his braided hair an absolute mess - strands of black hair were sticking in every direction, framing the pale face and trying to crawl into his mouth.

"Is it my turn already?" Orochimaru asked and rubbed his eyes, not bothering to fight against a yawn. 

Jiraiya could see the tiniest hint of wetness on his eyelashes.  
He also could feel his own internal organs acting up - heart skipping a beat, lungs feeling suddenly way to hot, stomach squeezing.   
He didn’t appreciate his guts playing tetris, but the view was entirely other thing. It wasn’t even about the bed thing.

Orochimaru was just the kind of person that slept with one eye open. Out there in the middle of war and back in Konoha - for Orochimaru there was no difference. He was always vigilant, eyes sharp and alert, perfectly collected and seemingly without a weakness.  
Yet here he was, in his dumb pajama with snakes on it, half-conscious and adorable in a way that didn’t seem to be even possible.

Jiraiya’s brain joined the tetris, because one moment he was standing in the doors to the bedroom, staring, the other he was kissing Orochimaru. On the nose. 

It was just a tiny peck, a split of a second of moving on auto-pilot while his brain reset.

"Buh-huh?" Orochimaru's eyes were suddenly huge as platters and words were failing him for the first time in his life. 

Not that Jiraiya's brain was working any better.

They've just stood there, staring at each other and looking for words that weren't there. 

Orochimaru was the first one to somewhat put himself together. He cleared his throat and broke the eye contact.

"The cats," he said. "I should probably... it's my turn to take care of the cats."

"Right," Jiraiya agreed with an awkward, stiff nod. His body felt like all of his joints rusted over or maybe like some annoying Rock nin covered him in a layer of stone to prevent him from moving. 

Orochimaru quickly marched away, giving Jiraiya a wide circle just to avoid any unnecessary contact. 

Jiraiya swallow a painful groan and considered hitting the wall with his head.  
That was one hell of a fuck up. A really giant one. 

xxx

They've spent the next several days avoiding each other.   
They were both shinobi and despite living in close quarters it wasn't that difficult. 

Jiraiya still considered smashing his forehead into the nearest wall.  
He managed to mend together what was almost a broken relationship and now it was falling apart, because he couldn't keep his stupid hands to himself. 

The cats, oblivious to the tension in the air, grew steadily and started to explore their surroundings.  
They were awkward and rocky on their tiny paws, flopping down onto their butts with every second step - Peachy decided that sliding on the surfaces was actually a way to move around. It looked hilarious.   
It also meant that the cats were suddenly everywhere. 

Jiraiya walked into the room, take-out in hand just to see Orochimaru carrying a tiny nugget of a cat, cradled in both of his hands.  
He talked to it softly, with a small smile, eyes partially obscured by his loose hair slipping from the lousy knot on the back of his neck.

He considered walking out. He considered hiding, obscuring his presence as much as it was humanly possible, just to observe the other man some more, to memorize this image.   
Instead he decided to to the adult thing.

"So, hey, can we talk?" Jiraiya asked, carefully putting the boxes on the counter top. "Because this is way beyond awkward now."

"Oh," Orochimaru acknowledged his presence with a slow blink, the smile slipping off his face.

In exchange, there was the carefully blank face Orochimaru tended to put on when talking with people he didn't like. Most people. 

It stung. 

"Of course," he agreed. "They're not far from figuring out how the solid food works, so I should probably pack-"

"This is not the conversation I wanted to have!" Jiraiya cut in quickly, the through of Orochimaru packing his things and leaving filling him with sheer terror. 

It was... there was a second toothbrush in the bathroom now and finding it was a surprisingly nice experience, feeling him with pleasant warmth. To think that a toothbrush was now going to disappear and take away the warmth with it...  
It was selfish of him, but Jiraiya wasn't sure he could bear to live with that.

"Then what is it?" Orochimaru tilted his head.  
His shoulders looked stiff and curled slightly inwards, like he was subconsciously trying to wrap himself around the kitten he was still holding. 

"Can we sit down?" Jiraiya proposed. "Talking to each other while we're on the opposites sides of the room hardly makes any sense."

"Right," Orochimaru nodded slowly and perched himself at the armrest of the sofa. 

Small furry paw tried to catch his hair.

Orochimaru brushed them aside.

Nugget proceed to try and climb up his yukata, to get back his current favorite toy. 

"Look," Jiraiya sighed and sat down. 

Not on the opposite end of the sofa, but far enough there was a significant amount of space between them. "I'm sorry, I've fucked up. I shouldn't have done anything like that. and now things are fucked and it's all my fault."

"Anything like that?"

"Well, Tsunade used to punch me when I went too far."

"I'm not Tsunade," Orocihmaru pointed out, his blank mask broken with a tiny furrow of his brow.

"Yeah, you're not," Jiraiya nodded. 

"Then why?" Orochimaru pushed. "Why did you do that?”

"It's not- Tsunade has nothing to do with this!" Jiraiya protested. "I... honestly don't even know how to explain this!"

He honestly didn't. He was fairly sure he still didn't like dudes, but Orochimaru was Orochimaru. Not some dude. Happened to have all the man bits and not the woman bits, but that was really not all that important when things came to Orochimaru. 

"I was just happy?" he tried again. He sounded miserable and squeaky and he didn't even had the energy to wince when he heard himself. "You never show any weakness and are always alert and ready to stab a bitch, but then you were just- half asleep and barely there and I was happy you felt safe enough to be like that around me?"

"And then I went and fucked it up, because I have no self control," he continued and shook his head. "I should've said something earlier, you know. I should've said that I'm sorry, but I was looking for one excuse and then another and then it just started to be silly and awkward."

"You're talking to me now," Orochimaru pointed out. 

"Guess I am," Jiraiya shrugged and laughed awkwardly. "That's something, I guess?"

Orochimaru looked away from a moment, concentrating his attention on trying to get his hair out of Nuggets reach. The kitten followed the movement like a tiny predator it was, clumsily trying to bounce after the hair. 

"I like you," Jiraiya admitted. "I like living with you and I like when you're happy. and I want to be your friend. But I also want to hug you and bake a cake for you."

"This is… nice? I guess?" Orochimaru said slowly, brow furrowed in the way he always wrinkled it when something confused him. "I don't know what to think about it. At all."

Jiraiya winced.  
It felt like a weight dropped off his shoulders just for another one to drop right onto him, plastering him into the ground.  
Just like the unexpected time travel, death and all the other things that kept dropping onto him like a pile of bricks.

"But friendship is nice?" Orochimaru added and chewed on his lower lip. It sounded awkward, especially coming from him. 

"Can we stay friends?"

"I guess so," Orochimaru nodded. "It was awhile since the last cake."

"The cats kinda took over," Jiraiya chuckled.   
The weight disappeared again, leaving him feeling lightheaded and euphoric and oh so very grateful for the space between them and the fact that they were sitting.

Because he would go and pick up Orochimaru and maybe whirl around and fuck it all up again. 

"They did," Orochimaru sagely nodded over, trying to get the cat from attacking his hair again. 

xxx

"Come back here, you traitorous little bastard!"

"...was Sasuke carrying a bun...?" Orochimaru asked, squinting a little and turning around.

The cat passed him on his way away from Jiraiya. If he were any other man he would probably trip, but Orochimaru's reflexes were always too got to be real. 

"He did!" Jiraiya angrily huffed. "I've just baked it and it was so neat and fluffy! and he stole it!"

He started to experiment with yeast several days ago and it was surprisingly difficult.   
Constantly either getting absolutely out of control, turning the dough into the floppy mush that was definitely not growing. Or coming out of the over hard like a chunk of stone.   
This was the first time Jiraiya managed to produce something that actually appeared to be edible and that little shit stole it right from under his hands. 

"Well," Orochimaru chuckled. "You know Sasuke."

"Yeah," Jiraiya grunted and crossed arms on his chest, still fuming. "I sure do."

Sasuke was a real menace during these short moments when he actually decided to come back home.

These were rare. some days Jiraiya was really thankful for that.

"You didn't bake a single bun, did you?"

"Well, no, but now it doesn't look as pretty!" Jiraiya whined. "I really wanted to show it off!"

Orochimaru laughed and walked into the kitchen.

Jiraiya followed, observing the yellow eyes gleaming with curiosity.

Orochimaru found the tray, but his attention shifted fairly quickly from the bakery goods back to Jiraiya.  
With a playful smirk he tore off a chunk of a random bun, making Jiraiya's work even less pretty, winked and put the piece into his mouth.

Jiraiya suddenly felt very hot and awkward. And terrified to move, because mistakes of the past still haunted him.

**Author's Note:**

> I was so damn sure the previous story was just an oneshot, but it grew into a whole AU inside my head. Oh dear. 
> 
> I also feared that this one came a wee bit too angsty than I wanted it to be, so I've spend a stupid amount of time editing like four lines of text over and over again. Whoops.


End file.
